


The Next Generation

by summerrain24601



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Coincidence? I think NOT!, Gen, Kids of heroes doing stuff, Post-Trespasser
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-21 18:17:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14290596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerrain24601/pseuds/summerrain24601
Summary: (it's a working title)Rhinna Arainai was left with her mother's clan after her father's former brothers-in-arms tracked them down near Kirkwall when she was six. It's been almost twenty-five years since that day, and now she sets out to search for him.Ella Hawke is one of four. She and her twin sister, Beth have been on the lookout for templars since their mother's disappearance, twenty years ago. Their younger twin brothers, Malcom and Carver, are as carefree as could be. But they still need someone to teach them magic, and their elven father's distrust of the art runs deep despite the Champion having been one herself.Inafen and Athim Lavellan are the only children of Inquisitor Lavellan, and they're searching for something in secret. A quest set to them by their mother, to find out what they can through what's left in the re-established Circles.The important question... Do you believe in coincidences?





	1. Antivan Dalish

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, guys, I had this yelling at me for the last few days, so I'm going to give it a go. No idea yet how it'll turn out.
> 
> Also, if you notice something funky with my math, PLEASE let me know.
> 
> 4/15/18 - Edited(twice) because I am bad at math.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After losing both their Keeper and their First to Kirkwall, Clan Sabrae left Sundermount. But it wasn't until several years later when they met Mihris, the last survivor of Clan Virnen, who was looking for a new clan. Now, the Blight is done and the werewolf threat in the Brecilian Forest is gone. But Rhinna Arianai does not want to return south with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, guys, I had this yelling at me for the last few days, so I'm going to give it a go. No idea yet how it'll turn out.
> 
> Also, if you notice something funky with my math, PLEASE let me know.
> 
> 4/15/18 - Edited(twice) because I am bad at math.
> 
> 7/23/18 - Added in a new part to the beginning, the snippet that brought this whole fic into being.

_"Now, you, I wasn't expecting," came a voice from the shadows. The elf walked into the dim light that filtered in from a hole in the cave's ceiling._

_"I thought I smelled Antivan leather," Isabela joked. The elf laughed._

_"Isabela! If it isn't my favorite pirate wench," he joked back._

_"Shouldn't you be dead by now?" she retorted with a laugh._

_"I could say the same, my dear," he responded. "It seems we were both fortunate to find powerful friends, no? Tell me, is this one as adventurous as our dear Warden?" he asked playfully, though it was mostly a joke._

_"We could always ask," came the Rivaini's response._

_"Another time, perhaps," the Antivan elf said after a moment of hesitation, despite his flirty behavior a moment ago. "I am… still in mourning."_

_"You fell for her?" Isabela said, sounding surprised._

_"Were it that simple," he admitted, motioning to something else hidden away. A little elf girl of five or six years poked her head out and darted over to hide behind him next. Her skin was almost the exact same tone, but her dark hair and bright green eyes were clearly from someone else. Isabela's eyes widened._

_"Well, Rivaini's been stunned into silence," Varric muttered. "I didn't think it could be done."_

_"Well, that would explain a lot," Isabela admitted finally. "Is she really yours?" He nodded, one hand on the child's head._

_"She is, yes, but she is looking more and more like her mother every day," he said with a soft smile that was reserved for his little girl._

_"I can see why you're so determined to elude capture," Hawke said after a moment. Merrill stared at the little girl._

_"She really does look like her…" the elf admitted softly before looking up at Zevran. "But she never told us she'd had a child. If you told the Keeper, I'm sure they'd let you stay."_

_"She did not write because Rhinna surprised us all," he confessed. "According to Alistair, there are no records of a Grey Warden having a child after the Joining. And the month before the battle of Denerim was quite chaotic."_

_"Well, that is certainly true," Anders muttered helpfully. Rhinna looked up at Hawke and her friends, her gaze stopping on the white-haired elf who stood slightly behind the Champion. She stepped out from behind her father, walking up to Fenris instead. He took a wary step back, but she reached up and brushed the markings on his arm with her tiny hand._

_"Ar lasa mala revas," she said softly. A spark jumped from her small fingers to Fenris's arm, igniting the lyrium markings and causing them to flare brightly. She didn't shrink away, as others had. Instead, she started tracing the marks on his arm._

_"Magic?" Isabela wondered._

_"Well, Mahariel's father was the Keeper before Marethari," Merrill mentioned. "So even though she wasn't a mage herself she did always have the potential."_

_"I admit, that is the first time anything like that has happened," Zevran said hesitantly._

_"What did she say?" Fenris demanded, glancing at Merrill._

_"Ar lasa mala revas," the other elf echoed softly. "You are free." A silence overcame the Champion's group at that revelation._

_"I was not aware that she knew even that much," Zevran admitted. Rhinna didn't react, seeming entranced by the lyrium markings on Fenris's skin and completely unconcerned with the rather pointy and sharp objects sticking out of his armor. The nervous look she'd worn previously had faded, replaced by an almost contented smile in her bright eyes. "But you can see now why I wish to avoid Nuncio and the Crows. If they kill me, either they will kill her as well, or they will turn her into one of them." Neither of which he wanted for the little girl, of course._

_"Well, we can't let that happen, now can we?" Hawke said in her usual mildly sarcastic manner. "Alright, we'll help you."  
_________________________________________________________

_A high-pitched shriek caught their attention as one of Nuncio's men flung the elf girl to the ground before them. She hit hard, unable to catch herself due to her wrists having been tied behind her back. There were tear stains on her little cheeks, and the look on her face went from fear to hope when she spotted Hawke and her companions._

_"Oh, Zevran!" Nuncio called, apparently knowing that the elven assassin wouldn't go far from his daughter. "You know what I'll do to her if you stay hidden!"_

_"I am here, Nuncio," Zevran said, eyes narrowed in anger. "Now release Rhinna."_

_"Papa!" the little girl called out, her voice a mix of happiness and worry. She started struggling against the ropes, and the distraction Zevran provided allowed Hawke to swoop in and get her out of danger. After cutting the ropes around Rhinna's wrists, she hid the girl behind a pile of boulders and had her stay put until their fight was done. And when it was, Zevran went to her so she wouldn't have to see the destruction._

_"Papa!" she cried out again when he circled the boulders, throwing her arms around him. She began to wail in the way only a child can, and he easily lifted her up into his arms._

_"Thank you, Champion," he said after a moment. "I've little reward to offer you, but perhaps this will serve as a token of my thanks." He fished the item in question out of a pocket before handing it to Hawke. "My dear Isabela, it has been a delight to see you again," he said to the other woman. "You travel in fine company."_

_"That's it? You're leaving? What about-- Oh, forget it," she muttered, shaking her head. "You of all people, a father. This I never expected."_

_"Neither did I," Zevran admitted, settling one hand on the little girl's back. "Now, we must take our leave."_

_"I know I said it already, but if you told Keeper Marethari that she's Mahariel's, I'm sure the Keeper would let her stay with the clan," Merrill said suddenly._

_"That might be the safest place for her," Zevran agreed reluctantly._  
______________________________________________________________

The elf woman's brow was marked in black with the arching bow of Andruil, made more complex by the branches that seemed to come from behind. In her hands she held her bow drawn, a slight frown creasing the vallaslin as she aimed. She was still and silent, barely breathing as she eyed her prey. With a soft twang, she fired, her arrow embedding itself deep into the deer, felling it and scattering the herd.

"A single shot, again," Tamlen said. He was not much younger than she was.

"As good as your mother was," said one of the older hunters. Rhinna looked over at him.

"So you keep saying, Fenarel," she responded, a hint of a different sound in her voice. There was also an edge to it. She disliked being so often compared to a woman she'd never met. Her bow returned to its place on her quiver, she walked slowly up to the deer she'd felled and removed her arrow, digging it into the dirt to clean it before returning it to her quiver as well. "We should get this to camp, first." 

"You speak true," Fenarel said after a moment. The others moved to assist in carrying the beast, and they made their way back to the clan. 

"Will you not choose a bondmate soon, Rhinna?" Junar, another of the older hunters, asked her. 

"No," she said simply. "I've told you before, once we near Wycome I plan to continue the search for my father. I will leave the clan, and find him." An awkward silence followed the hunting party the rest of the way to camp. Over twenty years since he had left her with her mother's clan, at just six, with the promise that he would return for her once he was no longer being pursued. And yet, here she was still, raised among the Dalish that had watched her mother grow. She knew why they were worried about her. She was approaching thirty and had yet to choose someone to spend her life with. But there were plenty of clan members who had chosen to remain unbonded. 

"Ah, you return," their Keeper called when they brought the deer back to camp.

"We have, Keeper Mihris," Fenarel told her. "With another story of Rhinna's success." Together, they lowered the deer to the ground so others could begin preparing it. 

"I simply do what I must for the sake of the Clan," she said mechanically. It was a line she had repeated many times before. Hopefully not one she would have to say much longer. While her beliefs followed the Dalish, clan life wore on her from time to time. 

"And the clan appreciates it, da'len," Mihris said with a warm smile. "We will eat well tonight." 

After they ate, Mihris found her again by one of the watch fires. "I hear you are planning on leaving when we pass Wycome." It wasn't a question, but Rhinna treated it as it was. 

"Yes, Keeper," she said softly. "I know Father promised he would return for me, but after this long, I wonder if something might have happened." She had never admitted it to anyone, not even Tamlen, who was one of her closest friends. "I appreciate everyone who took me in, of course, but I hate that all they see when they look at me…"

"Is your mother."

"Yes. The Hero of Ferelden, the Grey Warden who saved the world from the Fifth Blight." A hint of distaste colored her tone, making her Antivan accent more pronounced. "I know she was friends with many of the clan, but I am not her." 

"Of course, you are you," Mihris agreed. "But your mother was stolen away from them so suddenly, and departed this world in a similar way. Perhaps, to them, her memory is still fresh."

"Is that how you feel, Keeper?" Rhinna asked suddenly. "When you told me about Clan Virnen years ago, is that how you feel? Like everyone looks at you and only sees one part of who you are?" 

"It doesn't bother me so much anymore, but it did when I first stumbled across your clan," the older mage admitted. Rhinna remembered the day they found the mage, weak with hunger, in a cave near where they had camped for the night. The healers had done their best, and eventually she had recovered. The clan needed a Keeper, and the mage had been looking for a new clan, so it worked out. "We will cross paths with another clan ear Wycome, and I will trust you to their care until you reach the city."

"Clan Lavellan." They normally crossed paths near Wycome, once the clan had finally managed to get off Sundermount. "Are you truly planning on taking the clan south?"

"Yes, there are too many of us in the Free Marches now. The Blight is done, and the Breach is closed. The Brecilian Forest will welcome us again." Rhinna nodded after a moment. 

"Ma nuvinen, Keeper," she said finally. "I will miss you."

"And I you, da'len."


	2. The Hawkes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, please tell me if my math seems off. I just can't get it figured out. -.-

"Come on, who eats bear!" Beth complained as her sister tossed some of the butchered meat into the simmering stew.

"You want something different, then you can do the hunting," Ella snapped. "Meat is meat, just eat it already before the wolves start investigating."

"There's no wolves in this part of the Free Marches!" one of the boys insisted.

"There are wolves everywhere, Carver," Ella said with a sigh. Her twin siblings were quite the troublesome pair. She cast a glare in her other brother's direction. "Carver, will you stop? The fire they'll be able to ignore, but if you go making sparks in midair someone might spot us."

"It's not like there's real templars hunting down apostates like us anymore anyway," her twin sister said with a shrug. Ella rolled her eyes and sighed. She'd been looking after her three siblings ever since their mother had gone missing, almost twenty years ago now. She and Beth were the oldest, and the boys were younger. Surprisingly, Malcom and Carver were the mages, but not Beth and Ella. 

"Aunt Aveline was really okay with you quitting the city guard?" Carver asked between bites.

"Well, little late now, whether she was or not," Beth said with a shrug, her shield laying face-up on the ground beside her, her sword sheathed next to it. 

"I hope Dad wasn't too mad about us running out the way we did," Malcom said after a moment.

"Oranna will tell him. Besides, we did leave that note," Ella said, slipping her quiver over her head and leaning it against a nearby tree. "Mom was a mage, and we had to go into hiding after the chantry got blown up." She took a seat and accepted the bowl that was wordlessly passed to her. A bit of bear meat stew, using the potatoes they'd managed to get in the last village and what herbs they recognized in the forest. 

"Uncle Varric could've protected us, I bet," Carver said, taking another spoonful of stew.

"We can't count on him to keep us safe, or Mom's name, for the rest of our lives," Ella scolded them. The boys had only just turned twenty-two, they needed to learn to fend for themselves. And because of how young they had been when their mother disappeared, neither of them really remembered her. Sure, they'd gotten the basics from Merrill in the alienage, but they would need a proper teacher if they were going to survive much longer. "Unless you want to spend the rest of your lives in the Gallows, we're out of luck. Wycome's supposed to be a lot less strict than Kirkwall, so that's where we're going."

"Wait, you're turning us over to them anyway?" Carver asked, appalled. 

"No, but you'll get us caught if you keep shouting," Ella said sternly. "Wycome's not as strict, so we might be able to find someone there willing to teach a pair of apostates without giving you two over to the Circle. And if nothing else, I heard from Aunt Merrill about a Dalish clan that passes that way sometimes, they might be willing to help a bit before moving on."

"How much longer until we get there, anyway?" Malcom asked.

"Only a few more days, I think," Ella said. "We should be able to see the city once we get through this forest."


	3. The Herald's Best

The pair dismounted, and Athim's hart was led away by one of the hunters. The clan seemed much more wary of Inafen's dracolisk, though she couldn't blame them. Adahle didn't really like anyone else. 

"Here, I'll take her," she said after a moment. "She's really picky about her handlers." Athim gave her a look, and she responded with a look of her own. He'd been on the receiving end of Adahle's irritation before, and still had the scar to prove it. Inafen brushed a lock of her long brown hair behind her pointed ear. Her brother, she'd noticed before, boasted the same Fade-green eyes their mother had. But she didn't. 

"Andaran atish'an, da'len," a voice said to them. The twins turned to look at the speaker, breaking into smiles when they saw who it was. 

"Grandmother, how have you been?" Inafen asked, giving the old mage a hug.

"I'm well, da'len," Keeper Deshanna responded happily. "And how are the two of you?"

"I saw him in my dreams again, Grandmother," she responded. "The bald elf who wears a jaw bone as a pendant."

"A mage's dreams are strange things," the Keeper told them. "You must pay attention, especially as you keep seeing these dreams again and again."

"I know, Grandmother," she assured her. "I have been. The problem is that I'm having trouble understanding what they mean."

"Come to my aravel, da'len, and we can talk at length." 

"Is it alright if I tether Adahle outside it?" Inafen asked. "It'll keep her further from the halla."

"I do not mind," Deshanna said with a small nod, leading them toward her aravel. Once they were inside, Inafen began to speak again.

"Every time, it's the same dream," she explained. "I see Mamae walking into a glen with this elf, hand in hand. They start talking, and he tells her… he tells her about the vallaslin." It was harder to talk about this part, for one specific reason. "He says… that the vallaslin were slave markings during the time of Arlathan. But when he offers to remove it, mamae says no. Then, he… he kisses her, but he gets this really sad look on his face after, and he always says goodbye. The dream always ends with mamae crying as the bald elf walks away, and he always has the same pained look on his face. Like he didn't want to say goodbye."

"Have you had any other dreams of this elf?" Deshanna asked.

"You told me once you saw him in Skyhold's garden with some dark-haired apostate," Athim spoke up suddenly. "And that one about the temple." 

"Oh yeah, I forgot about the temple dream," Inafen admitted. "I only saw the temple a few times, and that was back when we had first started learning magic. The bald elf was there at the temple, when Mamae closed the Breach."

"I think she's dreaming about him because-"

"No, Athim," she cut him off. "There's no way that theory is true." She wasn't willing to accept it.

"Why can't it be? Who else in the Inquisition could it possibly be?" he countered, crossing his arms. 

"What are you two talking about?" Deshanna asked, bewildered.

"Father," Athim told her. "I think she's dreaming about our father, but she refuses to accept it."

"If he was our father, then he must not have cared much about what happened to us," Inafen admitted after a moment. She'd never told anyone how much it bothered her to not have someone they could identify as their father. Not even Athim. After all, if their unknown father had really wanted them, he wouldn't have left.

"Or Mamae never told him," Athim said, not for the first time. "You saw her face that time we asked about Father."

Their conversation simply continued falling from there, but eventually Deshanna was able to get it back on track. They talked about magic, both Inafen's studies of the Fade and Athim's elemental spells, and many other things. By the time darkness fell, they were invited to stay with the clan for the night. That was where they met someone new.

"Rhinna? That's not from the elven language," Inafen said thoughtfully. "I like it, though," she added quickly. 

"You two don't have vallaslin," Rhinna had observed. "Can I ask why?"

"Oh, we weren't raised in a Clan," Inafen told her. "We grew up in Skyhold, actually, in the Frostback Mountains. Right on the Orlais-Ferelden border." 

"Ah, the Inquisition," Rhinna said with a nod. "I have heard of it, but until now I had not met anyone who was part of it. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, Keeper Deshanna is our grandmother," was the dismissive response. "Mamae likes us to visit the clan from time to time, since she can't often get away long enough."

"I can imagine," Rhinna muttered, staring into the fire. "Are you leaving for the city tomorrow?"

"Yeah, hopefully," she said with a nod.

"Then… May I join you? I have business in Wycome as well."

"I don't have a problem with it. Athim, what about you?" Inafen asked, turning to her brother. He shook his head but said nothing. "Then yes, you can come. Do you have a mount?"

"No." 

"Ride with me, then," Athim said after a moment. "Adahle won't like you, but Falon's alright."

"Adahle? Falon?"

"Adahle is my dracolisk, and Falon is Athim's hart," Inafen explained. "Adahle is much more temperamental than Falon is." 

"Ah."

"Da'len, you should sleep soon," Deshanna said suddenly as she passed by. "You have an early start, come morning."

"Yes, Grandmother," Inafen and Athim said simultaneously. 

"Yes, Keeper," Rhinna said with a respectful nod.


End file.
